Magic Number
How to use it
Use the metric for action. Number less than <.5: not ready to invest; <.75: evaluate; >.75: invest in S&M
If you spent $1 on S&M in the 2nd quarter of 2019 and your revenue then increased by 25 cents in the 3rd quarter, you would have a Magic Number of 1.0.
A magic number of 1.0 also implies that you paid back your customer acquisition costs in a one year time frame
Pro’s & con’s
Pro’s
Widely used as a measure of sales efficiency, enabling the management team to understand overall sales health
Con’s
On its own, the metric does not evaluate payback time in a way that the CAC Payback Period formula does
ARDAN TAKEAWAY
Create a cadence in the organization that is able to answer how many dollars of ARR do you create with one dollar in S&M spend.